An Octoling's New Life
by GamerJosh2611
Summary: A shy Octoling joins the Inkling society, just as she dreamed of doing for all she can remember, which to be honest, isnt much. Alongside her, an Inkling agent who saved her from being turned into an Ink Smoothie, helps her adjust, along with her friends, 4 Pop Stars, and another Agent. Fluffy Cover art credit to: @y ugett, on twitter. (I HAVE RETURNED FROM THE DEAD BIT—)
1. Chapter 1, A New Beginning

It really is a beautiful sunrise.

Those were the thoughts that went through Agent 3's Head as the totally-necessary helicopter flew them towards Inkopolis.

And now that the sunrise was over, a certain someone needed to give him a much needed explanation.

Such as WHY THERE IS AN OCTOLING LAYING IN HIS LAP.

And WHY IS THERE AN OCTOLING!?

AND WHY IS SHE ASLEE-actually being sleepy at this point was understandable since apparently according to Pearl, this Octoling just inked an entire statue that was as big as Inkopolis tower.

But still, he needed context.

"Umm Captain?" Said the inkling boy, slowly turning to face him while making sure he didn't wake the girl sleeping in his lap, "explanation? Please?" He asked.

"Oh right! You're still a bit outta the loop!" Said the old squid cheerfully, "this is Agent 8! I found her unconscious when we first arrived down there!" He said in his usual happy-go-lucky tone, "apparently she doesn't remember who she is, but she heard the music of the Squid Sisters and wants to come and live in Inkopolis!" He said.

"okay... but why is she here?" he asked, essentially repeating himself, "ahh Three..." said Cuttlefish, "a fan of the Inkantation is no enemy of mine, besides, Marina over there is an Octoling, and she's just fine!" he said to the agent, "wait she actually is an Octoling? Wow..." he said, suprised.

Marina smiled, "yeah... I heard the sound of the Calamari Inkantation back when you first fought D.J. Octavio..." she said to the inkling, "It just... changed everything, I couldn't stand to live in the oppressive Octarian society anymore after I heard it, so I... ran." she said, looking down at the younger, sleeping octoling.

"The second I saw Eight, I knew immediately, she had heard it too, and she was just like me..." she said, rubbing the sleeping girl's head, "she may not remember it, but i'm sure that she had the same thoughts I had those two years ago... that this changed everything..." she said, smiling.

"There's something magical about that song I tell you!" Said Cuttlefish, coming back into the conversation, "It really opens your eyes." He said, eyes twinkling.

"I see..." said Three, looking down at the girl in his lap, beating him when he was brainwashed and saving the world immediately afterwards was bound to tire her out, but he just couldn't help but be cautious around this girl, after fighting Octarians for as long as he had, trusting one suddenly out of the blue was a little hard for him.

But as he stared at the girl in his lap, he couldn't help but think that he would try, for her sake.

"Oh and, by the way Three." Said Pearl, suddenly appearing beside him, startling the agent, "Can you take care of Eight and let her stay at your place?" She said, smiling.

"...Wait WHAT!?" He yelled out, causing the girl in his lap to stir a bit, though she quickly settled back into a deep sleep a second later. "Stay at MY place!?" He quietly yelled(?) at the girl, "Why!?"

"Well... its mostly because I don't think I can explain to my dad that I've now brought back TWO strange girls to the house to live with me, the first one being Marina." She said with a straight face, "And there's also the fact I don't think she should be with Cuttlefish considering he lives OUTSIDE Inkopolis, the place that Eight wants to be in." She said, pointing that fact out, "Me and Reena will grab some clothes and whatnot to fill up her closet with, but really you're the best option for this scenario." She said, grinning.

"Right... a guy and a girl under the same roof by themselves... totally the best idea..." he said sarcastically, "Please?" Asked Marina, putting her hands together, "Eight told us herself she wanted to experience the 'regular' Inkopolis experience, I doubt she should do that by living with two of the most popular pop stars in the world, the other two being Callie and Marie." She said, pleadingly.

The male agent still wanted to refuse this offer, his apartment was small and generally the idea of one guy and one girl alone in the same house screams "bad".

But when it came down to it, he just couldn't say no, and they had made some very good points, and it's not as if there was a fourth agent for her to live with.

 _meanwhile_

"ACHOO!!" Sneezed a male inkling with yellow tentacles in the spikey hairstyle, "geez... that was a hard sneeze..." he said to himself as he sat in bed, "somebody must be talking about how awesome I am!" He said to himself, leaning back and grinning widely.

 _Meanwhile... back with Three..._

"Dang it... alright fine..." he said grudgingly, "but only temporarily okay!" He said sternly, "yeah that's fine!" Said Pearl, grinning, "so then we have a plan!" She said happily, "me and Reena will head home and grab some clothes we think she'll look good in, you take Eight home and let her sleep, she's had a long day." She said, smiling at the sleeping Octarian.

"Ooh! Do you mind dropping me off here?" Said Cuttlefish, holding up a paper with coordinates written on it, "I got a text from my granddaughter, apparently we're having Crabby Cakes, it'll be nice to see them again!" He said, smiling.

"Oh yeah sure! We're on our way!" Said Marina as the helicopter flew towards the city.

 _~later~_

"Alrighty then..." Said Three as he entered his apartment, carrying the unconscious girl bridal style, "man it's been a while since I've been here..." he said, looking at the cluttered mess around him, "I'll put her in the guest room..." he said to himself as he opened the door to the room, he had already taken off the girl's ink tank and set it down in the living room, but since he didn't have any clothes for her yet, he just took off her shoes before tucking her in.

Speaking of which, these were HEELS.

From what his sister had told him, apparently these were a nightmare to walk in, not that he'd really know considering he's a guy and all, but if he took his sister's word for it, this girl was a freaking beast, running around AND beating him on top of that, in HEELS.

But enough about that, he was tired as well, so he quietly closed the door and walked to his room, a mess as usual but still a little neat, it was in the middle ground between neat and cluttered.

He flopped on the bed, exhausted from the day's endeavors, it wasn't even noon yet, the sun had just rose and he was already exhausted and sweaty.

"Hmm... what's this thing?" He said to himself as he realized there was something attached to his head, reaching the back of his head he peeled it off.

"...a bandaid?" He said out loud, then he realized there was writing on it.

 _Sorry about hurting your head, you were brainwashed_

 _Sincerely,_

 _-8_

"She... put a bandaid on me..." he said to himself, bewildered, "well... if the Cap'n trusts her so much I guess she's okay..." he thought, "I'll have to thank her..." he thought, before drifting into a deep sleep.

 _End of Chapter 1_

 **Hoooo baby it's done, and on Friday as well! Perfect! (Current goal is to update this story every Friday unless something comes up)**

 **New characters, New story, new plot, I'm excited for this! I hope you all enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed writing this chapter, which is a lot.**

 **See you next time, Stay Fresh!**

 **P.S. Original name was gonna be Inkopolis: The Land of Opportunity, but I changed me mind, so now it's "An Octoling's New Life"**


	2. Chapter 2, A Fluffy Awakening

"It sure is a nice day today..." was what Agent 3's first thought was in the morning as he laid groggily in bed, and for good reason, the sun wad shining, the birds were chirping, and an actual bed was something that he had missed for the past few days.

Not to mention whatever he was cuddling, was it a pillow? Ehh whatever, it was soft and warm thanks to body heat and he loved it.

Wait.

Pillows don't have body heat.

He slowly opened his eyes, as it adjusted to the light pouring into the room through the window, he began to see what he was clutching.

Or rather, what was clutching to him.

He gasped and opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out, his voice had failed him, blood rushed to his head, turning his face a bright red.

The Octoling was in his bed, and had turned him into an essential cuddle pillow as she was currently latched onto him with an iron grip.

Tiny squeaking noises were the only noises he could make, "ah... ah... ah...!" He stuttered, he was much too close...

The noises he could make however managed to stir the sleeping girl, she slowly opened her eyes, looking sleepily at who she was clutching.

If one could die of sheer embarrassment, Three would have died a long while ago, and this would just be beating his corpse.

Her eyes opened wide, he expected the worse...

Then she smiled.

A smile as though nothing that was happening right now was weird in the slightest.

Then his voice started working again.

"Ah... AHHHHHHHHH!!" He screamed, scrambling out of the bed in a blushing panic, Eight jumped back in suprise as he fell of the bed and scrambled to the other side of the room.

"What... WHAT IN GODS NAME ARE YOU DOING IN HERE!?" He screamed, his face crimson.

A moment of silence was had, the only sound being Agent 3 breathing heavily while Agent 8 just sat on the bed.

"...pfft...!" Was the sound that broke the silence before the Octoling broke into a fit of giggles, the inkling boy before her staring at her in confusion, holding in her laughter, the girl pointed at his lower-area before bursting into giggles once more.

"Huh...?" He said, confused, he looked down to where he pointed, realizing exactly what he was wearing.

His face somehow went a deeper shade of red, "T-THESE WERE A GIFT FROM MY MOM OKAY!?" He yelled out, covering his crotch area, also where he was wearing a childish underwear with a green squid pattern on it.

The Octoling simply giggled harder, before stopping suddenly as though her mental lightbulb had just switched on, she smiled smugly at the boy, before adjusting her position to have her legs to the side while she sat.

Then, putting up the proper face, the put her fingers to her mouth in a pose that could only be described as "seductive"

A full 10 seconds passed, nobody made a sound or movement.

Then a stream of blood flowed out of the male inkling's nose as his face turned (more) red.

Unable to keep her composure, she burst out in laughter as she held her sides, as though this was the most hilarious thing she'd seen in her life, or more accurately, the most hilarious thing she could remember, which it probably was.

"S-STOP IT, THIS ISNT FUNNY!!" He yelled out, grabbing a tissue and furiously attempting to shove it in the bleeding nose, though the carefree Octoling kept laughing, "pfft... kinda is..." she whispered before bursting out laughing again.

"Grr..." Said the inkling boy, still blushing, "it's not that funny..." he said to himself as he got up and put on some pants, the girl on his bed finally starting to calm down as she gasped for air.

The boy sighed, "I'm gonna go make breakfast okay?" He said, now in regular shorts and a white T-Shirt, "we're gonna have a talk about this later..." he said, his face still whitening from its deep shade of crimson.

 _~a moment later~_

The inkling boy left a plate with a pancake on it for Eight, and another one for himself at the other side of the table, checking his phone, he noticed he had a message from Marina, who he had exchanged numbers with along with Pearl.

 _DJ_Hyperfresh: hello! Just letting you know that we left a box filled with stuff for Eight outside your door, also, meet us at the Battle Lobby at 3 so we can show Eight around the square, see you later!._

As she had said, there was in fact a box outside labeled "8's stuff" at his door. Bringing it in, he spotted the Octoling on the balcony, gazing in awe at the view, mind you it wasn't much of a view, but you could see the square from where they were, and apparently that was enough for her.

"Hey," He said, getting her attention, "breakfast is ready, and your friends have left a care-package for you." He said, holding up the box.

Her face lit up as she grabbed the box from his hands and sat at the table, and opened the box as if it was Christmas morning, inside was a stack of clothing, shirts, pants, shoes, all the essentials, a tentatek splattershot, an Ink Tank, a wallet with a good amount of cash in it, and a phone designed in the shape of an octopus.

Agent 3 was relieved that Eight finally had some regular clothing, she couldn't just keep walking around in her-let's be honest-fairly skimpy uniform.

Eight was practically in bliss, most of this stuff was fairly ordinary to have, though I guess that wouldn't be the case for an Octoling.

Peering inside the box, he also spotted something that nearly made him spit out his milk, but he kept quiet, there was an album for some of Off The Hook's new songs lately inside the box, something that was supposed to come out in a month, "having celebrities for friends must be handy..." he whispered to himself.

The agent sat down and began eating, this snapped the Octoling's attention to her food as well, and started as well, "so..." Said the inkling, "whats your name?" He said, sheepishly trying to break the silence, the Octoling didn't say anything, she simply pointed to her head and then shook it.

"...so you don't remember your name?" He asked, "mm hmm..." she said, though it was really just a hum of some sort.

"Well... my name is Max," he said, introducing himself, "we're going to be meeting Pearl and Marina later so we can show you around Inkopolis okay?" He said, smiling, Eight's face lit up in delight, "mm mm!" She said, nodding her head.

"Also..." He said, "Why were you in my room?" He asked, frowning at the girl, she smiled sheepishly and giggled a bit, giving no answer. "Come on!" He said "I put you in the guest room last night!" He said with a hint of anger, but the girl simply smiled and ignored the question, and no matter how many times he asked that day, the girl refused to answer him, though he swore he saw a hint of red in her cheeks.

"Alright whatever..." he said, finally giving up, "get changed, we're gonna head out soon" he said, getting up and grabbing the empty plates.

 _"I wonder why she doesn't talk much..."_ he thought to himself as he washed the dishes, realizing just how little she talked since they met, so far the only thing she had said to him was when she was laughing her head off, and it was pretty quiet, _"ehh it's probably nothing, I'm sure she'll talk a lot when we start showing her around..."_ he thought to himself.

 **Aaaaaand that's this chapter, and I managed to get it out by friday, yay!**

 **Anyways, thank you for reading this story, it's nice to see that people enjoy it, and I hope you will continue to enjoy it as well!**

 **I'll take this time to say this, I am taking suggestions for Agent 8's name, please leave suggestions for what you want Agent 8's name to be in the reviews and maybe that's what her name will be!**

 **So leave a review, Hope your name gets chosen, and Stay Fresh!**


	3. Chapter 3, A beautiful decision

**Alright... the winner for Agent 8's name is...**

 ***insert drumroll soundtrack here***

 **...Going to be revealed during the chapter yaaaaaay!**

 ***water bottle thrown at me***

 **OW OKAY IM SORRY GEEZ.**

 **Anyways, enjoy!**

 **(Reminder, it was mentioned last chapter but I have a feeling it wasn't significant enough, Agent 3's name is Max)**

It shouldn't have taken 30 minutes to get to the square, but it did.

Mostly because he had to stop every time Eight was fascinated by literally anything. "Eight COME ON" He said, sounding exhausted, "it's a pigeon! You've seen like 10 pigeons now!" He said, Eight looked up at him, smiled, mouthed the words "nope", then went back to staring at the bird.

Max sighed, he was 99% certain she was doing this just to get on his nerves now, and it was working. "Come on, you wanna actually see Inkopolis or not?" He said, this caught the girl's attention, and in an instant she was ready to go.

"Seriously..." He said, sighing, "it's right over this way come o-" he said, turning the corner before being interrupted by Eight shoving past him to look around the square they had just entered, "oof!" He said, falling to the ground, "geez... I still can't read her..." he said to himself, looking at her as she looked through store windows in awe.

What bugged him about her wasn't that she was an Octoling, it was just the fact of how mysterious she is, even she didn't know who she was, and she hardly talked, he had been talking to her on the way here, mostly trying to get her to hurry up, but even then she never said a word, actually... the only time she said something was back when...

Max's face went red, he shook his head to clear those thoughts from his head, he walked over to Eight, who was gazing at the stores before her.

"Hey come on, the Lobby is this way" he said, grabbing her by the back of her shirt and dragging her towards the Battle Lobby.

The second they entered the building, they were greated by a certain short squid who had thrown herself at Eight, "EIGHT YOU'RE HERE!" Yelled Pearl.

"Pearlie don't make a scene!" Yelled a taller figure, running over to the group.

"Sorry, Pearl's been waiting for you," she said, grabbing pearl and pulling her back, "where have you guys been? We said to meet at 3, its 4!" She said. "Sorry, _somebody..._ " he said, looking at the octoling girl beside him, "Was too busy looking at pigeons and literally-everything to get a move on." He said, mentally shooting a mini dagger at the girl, Eight smiled sheepishly.

"Well, its fine, we still have time in the day." Said Pearl, grabbing Eight's hand, "We'll sign Eight up for a Turf War ID and Nickname, then we can decide whether to turf it out first, or get something to eat." She said while dragging the confused octoling towards a digital kiosk inside the tower, "Today is Eight's big day! Also tomorrow considering you slept for most of today and also, late, but either way, what we do is Eight's choice today!" She said kindly, before turning into a complete chatterbox, explaining how to use the kiosk to get a Turf War ID and about inkling holidays.

"Oh! Speaking of which, isn't it Splatoween soon?" Asked Marina, "oh right, carp I don't have a costume yet..." said Max, remembering the holiday coming up, "I feel like it's already happened though... but its still a week away..." He said, pondering the feeling, "eh, probably nothing." He said, brushing it off as just a feeling.

 **No i'm just experiencing the proof of being a writer, being chronically late, and I couldn't get a Halloween special out on Halloween.**

"Oh!" Said Pearl, grabbing their attention, "Guys, I forgot about this thing she needs to fill out!" She said, pointing at the screen, Eight looked uneasy.

The finger was pointing to a box on the screen labeled "Required" and "Real Name".

"Eight doesn't remember her old name, does she?" She said, giving a slightly worried look at the two, "She can't just have a number as a name, a nickname we use on her sure, but not a name..." she said, Eight bit her bottom lip, this caught Max's attention, she looked like a mix of fear, worry, and confusion all mixed into one uneasy feeling.

"Well, we planned to give her a name today anyways." Marina said, placing a hand on Eight's shoulder. "Might as well brainstorm now!" She said, smiling, breaking the tension.

"Yeah! Chin up, lets start throwing names out!" Said Pearl, "I'll start! How about... Ocho?"

"No... it needs to be more of a natural name, like mine or yours."

"Well what's your idea?"

"Huh? Uh... umm... how about... Zil?"

"Where did that name come from?"

"I don't know, I thought it was cute!"

"How about Cait? That's a cute name!"

"How do you know that she likes cats?"

"I don't know, but who doesn't love cats?"

"What if she likes dogs more than cats?"

"Then something is wrong with both her and you."

"Puppies are adorable okay!"

"SO ARE KITTENS, MORE SO EVEN!"

Max watched as the two bickered over names, seemingly forgotten. "Um... what about me?" He said, speaking up, "Oh!" Said Marina, realizing they hadn't asked him what he thought would be a good name. "Well, what do you think Three?" Asked Marina, all eyes fell on him, he felt nervous.

"Well... this is just a thought..." he said quietly, "What about... Koral?" He said.

"Coral?" Said Pearl, tilting her head, "Y-yeah... except spelled with a K, you know... K-Koral?" he said, stuttering a bit, why had he opened his big mouth, it was a sucky name, he knew it, they were obviously judging him for making such a bad na-

"That sounds great!" Said Pearl and Marina simultaneously, shocking Max. "What? You're serious?" He said, looking up, Pearl and Marina smiled, "Yeah! What do you think Eight?" She said happily, Max looked at Eight, Eight was staring at him, they stayed in that state for a little while, before Eight smiled the best smile he had ever seen, and said, "I Love it, thank you!" She said, despite saying it quietly as she had been so far, he could hear the joy emanating from her.

Max blushed, "Y-yeah... don't mention it..." He said, looking away.

Pearl helped Eight, now Koral, type her new name into the kiosk, but the sounds of her and Pearl's one-sided conversation with Pearl doing all the talking, it was drowned out by Max's thoughts.

 _"Was... was she always that beautiful?"_ He thought to himself, his face red, he couldn't get that face out of his head now, that smile, the look of gratefulness and joy she gave him, it was stuck in his head, and it wasn't going away.

His heart pounded, he gulped, desperately pulling his broken composure back together, as his breathing slowed down, Marina just looked at him, before smiling, and walking towards Pearl and Koral as they finished typing in the rest of the information needed for an ID.

 _"Pull yourself together Max..."_ he thought to himself, _"You can't fall that easily damn it..."_ He thought, the thought causing a flash of memory to go through his head, for a second he remembered a girl he hadn't seen in a long time.

"Dammit..." He said quietly to himself, "now she's back in my head..." he said quietly before pulling himself together and joining everyone else by the kiosk.

 **HOOF ITS DONE, finally god, I've been told that being chronically late is a constant for writers or artists by another artist, but jesus, I was going to make a Halloween special, but that didn't work out, heck I didn't even get to work on it.**

 **Anyways, Winner of the name poll goes to... my friend in real life, who found out I was a fanfic writer and gave me the name Koral as a suggestion.**

 **All of the names I got otherwise through this website were great as well, but I just felt that Koral was just the perfect name for her after I heard it.**

 **Also, it seems Max has *gasp* a BACKSTORY, and one that you will have to figure out by continuing to read!.**

 **Who is the girl in Max's memory? Why did Koral react the way she did when deciding a name inevitably became something she had to do? FIND OUT NEXT TIME ON DRAGONBALL SUPE-**

 ***Someone throws a tomato at me***

 **OKAY I'M SORRY GEEZ.**

 **Anyways, ill see you next friday! Hopefully actually on friday this time.**

 **Stay Fresh!**


	4. Chapter 4, A First Battle

Koral was ecstatic to say the least, at least that's what it looked like. He couldn't blame her, he remembered his excitement from when he first started Turf-Warring back in Inkopolis Plaza all that time ago.

She was making some sort of squealing noise as she smiled, jumping up and down and shoving the I.D in his face, "Okay okay! Geez!" He said, taking the I.D and looking at the information on it.

It was a black card with an I.D number he wasn't gonna remember anytime soon, it had a nice picture of Koral with a smile on her face right at the top left, and it had her Nickname right next to it, listing "Agent 8".

"Agent 8? Really?" He said jokingly, Koral puffed her cheeks in a sort of cute anger, "Hey I'm kidding, my nickname is Agent 3 you know." He said, pulling out his I.D, Koral quickly snatched it to take a look.

Max looked at the image on the card he was holding, his face reddened a bit, but he quickly blocked those thoughts out of his head.

"So whaddya wanna do now?" He said, handing her I.D back to Koral and taking his back, she didn't even think about the answer, "Turf War! Turf War!" She said, jumping up and down like an excited child.

 _"I can't read her..."_ he thought to himself, her personality had so many layers it was hard to say exactly what she was like, she was mischievous, playful, sensitive, and a bit shy (unconfirmed), but it still seemed like he had just tapped the first layer that is "Koral"

 _"Alsoshescuteasfu-NOPE"_ he thought, once again banishing those thoughts straight to the shadow realm.

"Well I guess we're decided then!" Said Pearl, taking out some Splat Dualies from her bag, "here, I forgot to give you these in the care-package." She said, placing the weapons in her hands, Koral's eyes seemed to light up as she started examining the weapon from every angle, before immediately tinkering with it.

"Haha wow! You really are like Marina!" Said Pearl, laughing out loud as Koral adjusted things like sensitivity and what-not.

"Anyways, let's register ourselves as a team for today and get started!" Said Marina, clapping her hands together.

Max smiled, it had been a while since he had done a turf war simply for the fun of it.

 _~later~_

"So yeah that's basically it." Said Pearl, finishing a quick explanation of the rules of turf war. "Just ink more than your opponent, and if you see an enemy, splat em."

Koral nodded, though she was visibly fidgeting, it looked like the nervousness finally caught up to her, one minute she's raring to go, filled to the brim with excitement, next minute, her nerve abandons firsther.

As the match began to start, she froze up and bit her lip, Max sighed, _"I really can't read this girl..."_ he thought.

He placed a hand on her head, making her jump in surprise with a little "eek!" She turned around quickly, Max grinned. "Don't worry about it..." he said calmly, "I was like this too when I first started..." he said, rubbing the top of her head. "just focus on the moment, and you can't go wrong okay?" He said kindly, still rubbing the top of her head.

Koral stopped fidgeting, Max didn't know it at the time, but that simple action of patting her head was much more significant than it seemed, Koral's cheeks flushed as she smiled at the boy, "...thanks..." she said softly, smiling.

"Alright everybody, battle time!" Yelled Pearl as the words "battle time" flashed on the screen on the wall. "Trust me," Said Max, "you'll do great." He said, grinning.

Koral took a deep breath, before breathing out again, she held her dualies up and got ready to go.

 _~Mode: Turf War, Stage: Moray Towers~_

Koral emerged from the spawn pad first, and the first thing that went through her head wasn't exactly the best one, it was something along the lines of "Oh god this is high up".

Max appeared next, he placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring look, the nervousness went away instantly, "Just play your best and have fun okay?" Said Marina, holding up an Octobrush, Koral nodded, and she turned to look at the stage in front of her, quickly analyzing it, she noticed the alternate paths to the bottom and the inkrails near the center, she grinned, she now had confidence since Max was there, and now, she was determined.

 **GO!**

"Alright everyone, split up and cover some gr-" Max started to say before he was interrupted by his sheer surprise at how fast Koral was with dualies, in an instant she was halfway to the center area. "Ah, so Koral is an aggressive player huh?" Said Pearl as she jumped down to the next level of the towers, though not as fast. "Oh boy, this is gonna go fine..." he said, sighing, quickly inking the areas that Marina had just run past with her Octobrush.

"Alright, lets see who the other team is..." he said, taking a look at the center, however nobody was there except for Koral, and there was... also a lot of their ink color.

 _"No freaking way..."_ he thought as he looked at the lone figure in the center, before it was interrupted by all four enemies jumping from above.

"DAMN IT!" One of _them_ yelled, holding an inkbrush, "stay still!" He yelled, swinging rapidly at the octoling, Koral just grinned, using her dualies to dodge roll straight behind the inkbrusher before splatting him, next came two Tri-Sloshers, both were just as easily avoided and disposed of, "damn it..." said the last inkling, holding a Gold Dynamo Roller, "Eat ink!" He yelled, raising his roller up to fling ink at the octoling.

What happened to him? Well, what usually happens if a dynamo roller attempts to fling ink at close range against a shooter, with said dynamo in shooting range, with said shooter having enough ink left?

"Well he tried." Said Max out loud as he was splatted.

"Whoa!" Said Pearl, "I knew Eight was a badass, but this is something else!" She said as Koral ran up the pathway to the enemy's side of the stage, already the enemy team was closing in on her, "Crap I gotta help...!" Said Max, quickly super jumping to her position, before suddenly realizing his mistake.

"Wait, isn't super-jumping to where there's a lot of enemies is a bad ide-" he said before being cut off by his own jump, "CARP NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" he yelled as he flew through the air, _"how'd I make such an amateur mistake!"_ He thought to himself, _"I know I haven't played Turf War in a while but this is ridiculous!"_

As he neared the ground, he braced for a splat as he would inevitably end up feeling when he ends up landing right where someone can splat him.

Except it didn't happen.

Max opened his eyes, everywhere around him was inked fully in pink, and Koral was just dashing up the towers, "Did... did she? No way..." He said out loud in disbelief, "Two times in a row is pushing it, but its still believable," he said as he watched the octoling move up, "but three times!?" He said, completely dumbfounded.

As Agent 3, he had his fair share of full-team wipes before, but his record for full-team wipes in a row on a single match was 2, and the record holder only happened once, a long time ago.

 _"I vaguely remember being a challenge to Koral when I was brainwashed..."_ he thought to himself, _"How is it that she's already increased the gap in our skills!?"_ He thought, bewildered, as he was thinking this, the enemy made it to Koral again.

Koral jumped past them onto a crate in the middle of the platform, turning into an octopus and swimming on the wall, before popping out above the enemy team and splatting them simultaneously, and then sticking the landing after doing a backflip.

"Damn..." said Pearl, "she just had to be a little extra eh?" She said, grinning.

The match was spent entirely like this, Max, Marina, and Pearl inked areas Koral missed while Koral took care of the full team of cannon-fodder.

 **GAME!**

"Alright!" Yelled Pearl, "We won!" Yelled Marina, Max was still attempting to process the full on success that was Koral's first match, Koral walked up to him, snapping him out of his trance, quietly, twirling one of her tentacles in her finger, she said, "Did I good?" She said, still twirling her hair.

If metaphors were real, Max would be dead, because a heart-shaped arrow just pierced straight through his heart.

"I... I... what?" He said, staring at the girl, the octoling had transcended the puppy-eyes with the face she was giving him, clearly looking for recognition of what happened during the game.

"O-oh yeah!" He said, quickly recovering his composure, "You did better than I could have ever imagined!" He said, earning a wide smile from the octoling, her childish side showing.

"Alright everyone, lets see who won!" Said Marina, looking over at Judd and Lil' Judd, "They should be starting the judging no-" She said before stopping abruptly at the sight in front of her.

Judd stood with a blank face, holding up a pink flag, Lil' Judd laying defeated next to him, as well as the enemy team, all laid on top of eachother in a pile, the Dynamo user lifted up his head, visibly struggling. "I-It usually takes longer... for the Judd's to decide... a winner... bleh..." he said before passing out.

Indeed, as they looked over at the pink stage, if that image wasn't the pure definition of "dominated", nobody knew what else was.

"Wow Koral!" Said Pearl, the first one to regain her composure, "You're awesome!" She said, causing the octoling to blush as she looked away, "Just nothing..." she said quietly.

Those words woke Max up, "wait, 'Just nothing'?" He said, "what does that mean?" He asked, though Koral didn't answer, as she was too busy looking away, blushing as he asked about what she said.

Marina placed a hand on his shoulder, "it's her dialect, Max," she said kindly, "I was the same, it takes a bit of time for us Octoling's to get used to speaking like Inklings." She said, looking at Koral, now causing Koral to blush even more, "Seems Eight is a little more sensitive about her dialect." She said, smiling, while Koral, now crouched down to hide, blushed more.

"Anyways..." Said Pearl, "now that we've done that, lets get some grub!" She said, grinning like an idiot, "I'm starved!" She said as she walked ahead of everyone.

"Excuse me!" Yelled a voice as they stepped outside, a jellyfish wearing a black tuxedo came up to them, "Which one of you is the player 'Agent 8'?" He asked, Koral looked at Marina, Marina nodded to give her reassurance, Koral kneeled down and handed the jellyfish her I.D, the Jellyfish read the card before handing it back, he pulled out a business card, "My name is Jelio, I'm from the Toni Kensa company." He said, handing the business card to the octoling, "I was told to find skilled players to hire for a part-time job." He said, "If you are interested, please call the number on that card." He said before walking away.

A moment of silence passed.

"NO WAY!" Yelled Pearl, attracting stares, "Your first match and you're already being SPONSORED!?" She yelled out, earning murmurs from the people nearby, "Hush Pearlie!" Said Marina quickly, she grabbed the card and inspected it.

"Oh wow... it's true!" She said, handing the card back to Koral, "Kensa really is thinking of hiring her!" She said, excitedly, "it took me and Pearlie FOREVER to get a sponsor from Grizzco!" She said happily.

"Hold on, sponsored?" Said Max, clueless, "He just said Part-Time Job!" He said, pointing out one little tidbit of information, "They say that, but with a job like that, you usually get sponsored, and they'll ask you to go into turf war matches using their weapons to advertise things and whatnot, then if you're with them for enough of a time, they'll ask you to model... then appear on commercials..." Said Pearl, going on and on.

Marina placed both hands on Koral's shoulders, "I would take this, you may not get another chance," She said, smiling, "but in the end, it's your choice, so you go with what you think you should do." She said, supportively, "anyways, you guys can think about that later, in the meantime, lets find something to eat!" She said, dragging the octoling with her as they went around the Square.

Meanwhile Max was bewildered, once again.

"...Sponsors?" He said out loud, "How come nobody sponsored me when I was younger!" He said out loud to nobody in particular.

 **HOOOOOOOOOOO ITS DONE!**

 ***reads time, it says 12:01***

 **CRAP A MINUTE LATE.**

 **Well anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, see you next time, Stay Fresh!**


	5. Notice

**Hello, I have some bad news, there won't be a new chapter today or anytime soon.**

 **The reason being, it's personal, all you need to know is that I'm going through something tough, and I don't have time to be writing chapters.**

 **Please understand, I hope to return soon, but the date of that is to be determined.**

 **I hope you understand, and I'll see you next time.**


	6. Chapter 5, (YES I LIVE)

_**It was abnormally windy, the cliff was steep, and the writer was exhausted both physically and mentally.**_

 _ **Yet he climbed, and climbed, and climbed…**_

 _ **Until finally, he reached the top.**_

 _ **And there it was. A glowing cartridge for the game Splatoon 2.**_

 _ **He grasped it, and light engulfed the canyon as the writer was filled with a renewed interest in Splatoon as a franchise.**_

 _ **And finally, as tears streamed down his face, he looked up and screamed at the heavens:**_

 **I**

 **FUCKING**

 **LIIIIIIIIIIIVE**

* * *

Time passed rather quickly as Max continued to try and adjust to life with a girl in his home.

It… wasn't going well, to say the least.

Mostly because she didn't seem to understand that you're supposed to sleep in your _own_ room. Not with somebody else.

Oh, he _tried_ to keep her out.

He locked the door to his room, though he was uneasy about the fact that if a fire started, she wouldn't be able to get to him. But at that point, he was desperate.

Turns out, Octolings are _super_ inventive, and Koral had already mastered the ability to make and use lockpicks. So he would wake up in the morning with a dangerously-undressed girl next to him in bed.

It wasn't good for his heart to say the least.

Plan B: Catch her in the act.

He stayed up all night. She never opened the door, so he could never catch her.

Thinking that perhaps he had achieved a small victory, he fell backward and collapsed onto his bed, asleep.

He woke up later in the afternoon with Koral in his bed again.

 _!?_

Plan C: Oh-how-he-hoped-to-avoid-this

While Koral went out to spend time with Marina, who had become something similar to a Big Sister, Max set traps in his room.

Strings that were set up to trip her, while also setting off Max's alarm clock, were among the different traps that were set.

Additionally, he had intentionally thrown things over the ground… or rather, he had cluttered up the floor strategically.

It was now hard for even Max to get through his room without knocking something over.

So, after locking his door, he went to sleep.

You can probably guess what the result was.

The traps were completely untouched, and Koral was snuggled comfortably into his bed.

Max had forgotten that Koral was a bit of a badass, capable of going into Turf Wars while wearing _heels_.

Reluctantly, Max gave up and eventually just allowed Koral to sleep in the same bed as him, so she no longer had to sneak into his room.

It didn't stop him from nearly having heart attacks whenever he woke up with her face _uncomfortably_ close to his.

* * *

Despite Marina's best efforts at teaching Koral the language and various slang that Inklings have. Koral and the Inkling language did _not_ go together.

Max opened one eye as Koral entered the apartment. Max had chosen today to just laze around on the couch, so Koral had gone out with Marina to try out Ranked matches.

"I am come back!" Koral said awkwardly. "Boo-yes!"

"Snrk…!"

Not only did she mess up her opening sentence, but she had said "Booyah" wrong, and in the wrong context as well.

"Ah, it's 'I have come back'" Max corrected her through his snickers. "Also, you don't have to use 'booyah' in every sentence."

"Ah! Very sorry!" Koral said, even more awkwardly now. "Very fresh!"

Max snickered again.

Koral ended up getting mad and pouted for the rest of the day. Since then, she's become very quiet.

Instead of talking, she's now apparently mastered basic hand signals.

"Huh… I guess it would make sense for you to be good at those… since you were once part of the Octarian military…" Max said out loud.

Max still had to interpret her meanings, since he didn't understand sign language too well, and Koral only used basic signs anyway. However, Max ended up knowing her well enough to understand her almost perfectly, even without words.

Mind you, it was mostly because her emotions were always easy to read thanks to her facial expressions. You could tell when she was happy, upset, proud, and so on.

So, despite the ever-present language barrier, life got a little bit easier.

* * *

Max didn't know why Koral ignored the sponsorship.

Perhaps it was because she simply didn't care, but it was her choice to make.

The company card remained on the table, untouched for quite a while. Koral received a few more offers as she continued to rise through the ranks of Turf War, but she threw them all away. All except the first one, which was admittedly, the best one of the bunch.

Max had asked her about it, but she always ignored the question no matter what he did.

Max was admittedly a little jealous, but in the end, he hardly cared about having a sponsorship. It just meant that he would have to pose for a few pictures and get paid a little more if he won in Turf Wars.

So, in a way, he could understand Koral's choice in the matter.

Though, as he eyed the paper for the latest rent on his apartment, he did wish that he was in a better spot financially.

* * *

Koral was a _monster_ on the battlefield.

Inklings had a black line in between their eyes, and their ears were pointy. Octolings, however, lacked this black line and their ears had more of a curve to them, while also pointing down a little.

Luckily enough, these changes were subtle enough that nobody noticed them. But they were still there, so when Koral became incredibly popular to the point of obtaining a nickname…

" _Dude, she's like a Kraken!"_

" _A Kraken? You mean that old Special Weapon?"_

" _Yeah! There's like, nothing you can do if she starts running at you!"_

" _A Kraken, huh… I dunno, it doesn't feel like it fits her."_

" _Hm… you're right. How about… the Cthulhu…?"_

" _Ooh, how creepy…"_ " _It's not creepy! It's cool!"_ " _We know, we know! We're just messing with you!"_

And thus, the _Cthulhu_ was born.

Koral didn't mind the nickname. In fact, she actually embraced it, thinking it sounded cool.

Meanwhile, Max thought that the nickname was fitting. Especially when he saw her during Turf Wars.

She really was a bit of a monster on the field.

She had no main. She was proficient in pretty much every weapon. Sheldon even hired her to test out his new prototypes for some extra cash, and she even helped him with the designs and blueprints.

In fact, she even seemed to _enjoy_ listening to his long, drawn-out explanations about each weapon. Nodding along with a big smile on her face.

She selected her weapons based on what she felt like using, and what the stages were…

She had achieved an almost 100% victory-rating, even after playing everyday.

Max watched as she sniped someone through the Ultra Stamp, waiting for the brief moment when the large hammer was lifted up before blasting the enemy Inkling to high-heaven with a Charger.

If she so much as touched some Dualies, she became completely untouchable. Give her a Roller and she would use her godly stealthing abilities, and by the time you see her, you would already be splatted. Give her a regular Splattershot and you'd be splatted the instant you enter her range.

Blasters were a death-sentence to anybody who dared to approach. Gatlings were an unending torrent of Ink. Brushes gave her full maneuverability throughout the stage, and Buckets provided assaults that are impossible to fight back against.

I mean, it wasn't too surprising to Max. She had cleared through all of the Deep Sea Metro's tests, as well as defeated him while he was brainwashed and pulling out all the stops.

And she did all of this in heels.

* * *

Koral had suddenly asked Max to go down to the Deep Sea Metro and grab some of her things from the train. She had apparently just remembered that in the rush to leave for the surface, she had forgotten some important items.

So, he went in and boarded the subway, immediately making his way past the many passengers to the back of the train, where she had apparently stayed during her journey.

"The seat at the very back…" Max muttered as he walked on over.

His eyes widened, though he couldn't say he was too surprised.

This was to be expected. She was an amnesiac who wanted nothing more than to see the surface.

Sitting untouched, was a stack of old Inkopolis magazines.

Looking at the seat, he wondered how anybody could sleep there. He was told that her ability to sleep anywhere no matter what stemmed from her having slept quite a lot on this train. But still… there were no blankets to be found, and the seats were far from comfy.

She must have simply curled up in her seat and remained perfectly still, dreaming of Inkopolis even as she slept in an uncomfortable position.

Biting his lower lip, he quietly picked up the magazines and sat down, awaiting his next stop.

* * *

Despite all of her badassery, Koral had her soft spots.

For one thing, Max had noticed a few sleeping habits of hers that he found… dangerously cute.

Whenever she slept, she would always curl up into a ball, as if trying to take up as little space as possible. It was clear where this habit came from, but it was still heart-melting.

On top of that, she would occasionally make grunting and moaning noises when she sleeps, signifying that she's having a dream. Usually she would simply twitch her arms outward briefly, kind of like Li'l Judd whenever he's sleeping.

This, however, also applied to nightmares.

If she had a nightmare, she would twitch more often and let out small whines. Usually, she would end up clinging to Max in the middle of the night during these times.

Max always did wonder what her nightmares were about… but he didn't know how to ask a question like that.

* * *

"Wait, you guys reproduce by cutting off tentacles?" Max asked.

Both Pearl and Max were staring at Marina and Koral with similar expressions of surprise. Marina laughed as she stared at their dumbfounded faces, while Koral twirled one of her tentacles in a sort of embarrassed way.

"Wouldn't you know this, Max? You've been working with the Captain against the Octarians for quite some time, right?" Marina asked.

"Ah, well… I guess I didn't really pay too much attention to that…" Max replied sheepishly.

"Then let me explain." Marina said as she lightly twirled one of her tentacles, drawing both Pearl and Max's attention to it.

"Octarians primarily reproduce Asexually. This is done by cutting off one of our tentacles, which then grows and becomes one of those single-tentacle Octarians that you saw a lot during your battles." Marina explained.

"You mean the ones that ride on those small machines and fire slow-moving balls of ink?" Max asked.

"Yup. They typically aren't very smart, though." Marina explained, "But, sometimes they'll start growing more intelligent and split into two tentacles. Then, though it doesn't happen all the time, they'll sometimes grow into and become Octolings."

"So… does that mean you were once an Octotrooper?" Pearl asked.

"Oh, no no! Those types of Octarians can only produce Asexually, but us Octolings do have genitals like Inklings, so we can reproduce sexually as well." Marina explained, her cheeks a little red.

"Whoa… so could you…" Pearl started to ask.

"Reproduce by cutting off a tentacle? Yes, but I won't! It'll still be painful, you know!" Marina exclaimed.

Koral was nodding her head profusely while clutching her tentacles endearingly.

"Ahaha! Sorry, sorry!" Pearl laughed.

" _So… Octolings can still…"_ Max started to think as he stared at Koral.

His face turning red for a moment, he quickly banished the indecent thoughts from his mind.

* * *

Rent.

Octarians were never Max's archenemy. His true archenemy was paying rent on time.

Mind you, he had recently stopped going to Turf Wars as much, so if anything, his lack of funds were solely his own fault.

Koral, on the other hand, was _obsessed_ with the sport.

He was certain that she had more money than him, but he wouldn't dare to ask her to help pay rent. She was the ultimate form of a foreigner, being a completely different, though remarkably similar, species.

But still…

"This is pretty bad…" Max muttered out loud as he stared at his "Final Warning" notice.

Luckily, if he spent the entire day playing Turf War, and hopefully winning more than losing, he should be able to scrape by.

"Hey, Eight? Wanna go play some Turf War together?" Max called out.

Almost instantly, Koral was at the door, jumping up and down in her excitement.

"Really? You will battle the Turf Wars with me?" Koral spoke in her broken Inkling-language.

"Yup. I'm feeling a little competitive today." Max said as he put on his shoes and started walking towards the door.

Koral noticed him put his Final Notice on the table and tilted her head in confusion, pointing at the paper.

Understanding that she was asking about it, Max sighed. "Ah, don't worry about it, it's nothing." He lied.

* * *

Koral may have a severe case of amnesia, though partly resolved thanks to the Mem Cakes she got in the Deep Sea Metro, but she wasn't born yesterday.

She could tell by Max's easy-to-read expression that the piece of paper he had just set down was important somehow, but she didn't know why.

So, she planned to take a peek at it later.

After they got back home, tired from all of the Turf Wars, she saw Max dump the paper in the recycling bin.

So, while he wasn't looking, she snatched the paper out of the bin and hid it in her room until later.

So, the next day came, and she went to Marina to ask what the paper was.

She was… decent, at reading and writing in the Inkling language. Unfortunately, her "decent" skills at the language were insufficient when it came to understanding what this paper was.

So, she gave the paper to Marina and asked her to translate it for her. She could understand the Inkling-language perfectly if spoken to her, but she couldn't speak it well herself, or read it, or write it very well.

But she was surprised when she saw Marina's smile change into a concerned frown.

She understood why after Marina explained it to her.

It had never occured to Koral that Max's residence wasn't something he had for free. She was originally a soldier, so she understood that taking care of yourself and somebody else would cause one to have a tougher financial situation.

She had been freeloading off of him this whole time.

How could she be so stupid?

She ran out the door, despite Marina calling out to her, frustrated at herself and mentally beating herself up.

She had been too drunk on the feeling of freedom that Inkopolis gave her.

She remembered it like it was yesterday.

 _She defeated Agent 3, and in her concern for his well-being, she bandaged his head as he laid on the ground, unconscious._

 _Then, the elevator stopped moving._

 _She saw a long, long ladder that led upward._

 _It was so tall, it seemed to symbolize her long journey to get here._

 _So, after untying Cap'n Cuttlefish and hoisting Agent 3 onto her back, she started to climb._

" _It's right there…" she thought._

" _Inkopolis…" she thought._

" _The place I dreamed about… the place I've been told about…"_

 _And finally, she reached the platform at the top, and opened the hatch._

 _Immediately, she was hit with a gust of cool air._

 _It felt… different. Different when compared to the artificial air and breeze created in the facility._

 _It felt invigorating. It felt nice. It felt… fresh._

 _And as her tentacles flapped in the wind, she looked out at the sunrise._

 _She had done it._

 _She had made it._

 _Her fight with Agent 3 had been one of the toughest fights she had ever fought. Even compared to covering the entirety of the statue in Ink was easier in comparison thanks to Marina and Pearl's support._

 _She had heard so many stories about Agent 3. How he had heroically saved Inkopolis, even though nobody knew about it. How he had fought and defeated D.J. Octavio, and unleashed the beauty of the Calamari Inkantation._

 _And she had won against him._

 _Though, he WAS brainwashed at the time._

 _Agent 3… no, Max was the greatest person in the world to her, even more than Marina. He was her hero, her ideal._

Koral stared at her Golden Toothpick as she ran, remembering her fight against the Inner Agent 3. Her mental ideal of the unbeatable Agent 3.

It was hard. She lost countless times.

But eventually, she won there as well.

She was ashamed to think that she had been dragging him down all this time.

She wanted to show her gratitude. Max had, after all, literally saved her and Cap'n Cuttlefish's life before they were literally blended into paste.

She dashed into Max's apartment. Judging by the seemingly empty apartment, Max was likely elsewhere right now.

The card for her sponsorship was still on the table.

" _The least I can do is help him live comfortably, even with me here…"_

 **End**

 **Once again…**

 **I. FUCKING. LIVE.**

 _ ***Breaks through the dirt with a single fist, clambering out of the ground like a zombie***_

 **God, it's been a while, man…**

 **(ONE YEAR AND THREE MONTHS SINCE THE LAST CHAPTER, ALMOST FOUR MONTHS, which, by the way, I am fully deleting that. This fic is gonna be… well, one rating down.)**

 **I… don't have a good excuse. I'll be completely honest.**

 **I lost interest in Splatoon as a whole.**

 **I don't know why, but it just felt harder and harder to keep writing this chapter.**

 **I went through a total of TWENTY-FIVE rough drafts for this chapter! And that was a long time ago!**

 **But nothing seemed good. I didn't like what I was putting out there and I was NOT writing these characters the way I wanted them.**

 **On top of that, I was getting new interests. Yugioh was the one that blossomed at the time, and it's still going strong. Fate/Stay Night has catched a massive amount of my attention, and all in all, it just felt like I was forcing myself to do something I didn't want to do by writing this fic.**

 **I put numerous updates in the reviews, as well as in my account's bio, but other than that, I was just… not having a good time anymore.**

 **I wanted to write other things for other franchises. I wanted to reinvent myself a little bit as a writer.**

 **You might notice that my writing style is a little different, hopefully improved, by now.**

 **This chapter was a bunch of short sections of moments, which isn't going to be all too common after this. It's my apology to you guys by giving you guys multiple pieces of new content.**

 **I will be COMPLETELY honest again.**

 **[YOU MIGHT WANNA PAY ATTENTION FOR THIS PART]**

 **I likely won't be updating this fic often. I have another account that I am also writing fics on, and while my interest in Splatoon is coming back, I still have a bunch more now.**

 **But I promise I will work on it more often.**

 **Now then, time for a little fun-fact on my headcanon for the world of Splatoon:**

 _Octolings and Inklings are still, inherently, Cephalopods. Therefore, I do not believe that they reproduce in the same way as us Mammals. Like real-life Octopi and Squids, I believe that (In the case of Octoling sexual-reproduction), they basically lay eggs. They give birth to eggs that hatch into little baby Inklings/Octolings._

 _Can Octolings and Inklings reproduce TOGETHER?_

 _...we'll have to discuss that topic, another time._


End file.
